1998 astro 200 water issue

[1pabassman]

Ok so I took my 99 astro 20ft bass boat out for the first time since restoring ,didnt spent more than an hour on the lake due to a fuel issue ,so I trolled around with the tm,when, I put the boat on the trailer I checked the bilge for water and to my delite there was less than a cup of water,so no major leak issuesbut!,when I put it in the garage I opened the back compartment and this boat has one long lid on the back that gives access to the bilge/batteries/gas tank, and on both sides there is two storage bins so i pulled the on behind the driver side,and i happened to notice water coming out of the few screw holes on the area I think is the foam filled flotation compartment,leading me to think either the boat was in a flood before I bought it,the past owner had put the boat in the water without the plug and it flooded as per the owner telling me,or that the boat was never covered,so my question is how do I go about getting the water out get the foam out so I can dry it out and re foam it?

[RPCfish]

I found the same thing on a champion i picked up recently. i am sure the people on here can confirm that once the water is in the foam, it will never dry out. you have to remove the foam and pour in new foam. on my champion \I had to pull the cap off and I am starting the complete rebuild of the hull structure, removing all the wood. you can check out my posts and see some pics. so far I am glad I am doing this as I have lots of rot due to the foam being water logged. not trying to scare you.

[1pabassman]

Well as soon as I seen it I started checkin around the boat and so far my stringer and most importantly the transom is dry and solid it is only that one area that has the water , I will be cutting a square out and dig all the wet foam out ,dry it out and possibly use spray foam to put back in

[bigfoot17]

I bought an 1988 skeeter that is in great shape. Garage kept. I checked the transom and felt one of the stringers and they still felt solid but I still wonder with the boat being that old if it's still waterlogged. I have a 175 merc on the back and it doesn't seems as it goes as fast as it should. Sometimes I wonder if the foam is waterlogged, if it will slow the boat down dramatically.

[1pabassman]

Well I cut into the foor where the battery and oil tanks sit,the foam isn't that deep toward the outside edge of the boat is 3 inch and toward the bilge is 8 so the foam actually follows the shape of the hull, now there was water soaked I to the foam about 1 inch from the top,then dry in the middle and the bottom inch had some water,so I cut and removed a 10 inch wide spot all the way down to the hull and sucked the water out,I let it stand over night and this morning I had about 2 inch of water in the cleaned out area ,so I'm thinking the water that is in there was either the back was flooded at one time or it was left out in the weather,and my wife reminded me the last owner did tell me which I forgot,back in october he put the boat in the lake and forgot the plug

[1pabassman]

Confirmed my suspicions today I cut a section 3ft by 2ft out of the oil tank compartment ,the top 1 1/2inch and 1 inch of the bottom foam was wet an the middle was dry confirming this was wet due to not putting the plug in,I dug it out,gonna dry it for 2 days and foam backbone and plywood and fiberglass back together